Political Quotes

“I am here to speak about the American Energy and Conservation Act, which we will be voting on today. I thank once more my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their hard work on this American Energy and Conservation Act of 2016. Yesterday, the senior Senator from Florida made some statements, and I would like to address some of those. The senior Senator from Florida suggested that developing America's energy resources off our coast is incompatible or somehow conflicts with Department of Defense activities. Let's be honest. Let's just be honest. There have been oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico for almost 80 years. Through all of this activity, industry and the United States military have been able to coexist. As for future production off the Atlantic, I personally sat with representatives from the Department of Defense to discuss this issue. Their analysis showed that in President Obama's original Atlantic Draft Proposed Program, less than 2 percent of the acreage was recommended to not have oil and gas development because of operation conflicts. Now, here sometimes it is ``he said, she said'' or ``she said, he said.'' This is objective. This is the DOD Mission Compatibility Planning Assessment regarding the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program from October 30, 2015. That is where that 2 percent number comes from. The American people deserve honesty. We should not mislead them.…”